The difficult road to democracy in the developing world
Each nation passes through a different political experience and develops its own distinct social norms and administrative institutions. While in the West the Westphalian model of a democratic sovereign state has taken root, it still remains a goal for many developing countries. Democracy means rule through independently elected people for limited terms. Democratic dispensations have also developed a system of checks and balances between the various organs of state.
Democracy is often defined as government of the people, by the people, for the people. This definition, however, is too idealistic for the developing world. An efficiently working democracy presupposes a high rate of literacy, mature political parties, an independent judiciary, an efficient election commission and a free but responsible media. It is difficult to find all of these ingredients in good measure in many developing countries. As a result, a lot of them that have opted for democracy are yet to develop robust institutions that would enjoy the full confidence of their people. That is why these governments often fail to pass a performance-legitimacy test.
Democracy as practiced in many Afro-Asian countries has actually, in effect, morphed into oligarchic governments. In India, the Gandhi-Nehru dynasty still controls the Congress Party. Bangladeshi democracy is also stuck in dynastic rule of sorts. In Pakistan, the Bhutto-Zardari family-led People's Party still rules the roost in the province of Sindh despite its dismal performance at the national level from 2008 to 2013.
One of the good things about democracy is that people have the power to change a government by voting it out if they are not happy with its performance. This has started happening in Pakistan, slowly. One should not expect a nation with a 50 percent literacy rate and 40 percent of its population still living below the poverty line to develop into a vibrant democracy overnight.Government of the people, by the people, for the people is too idealistic a goal for many countries still in the early stages of growth and modernization.
Javed Hafeez
After his ill-considered invasion of Iraq, US President George Bush floated the idea of democratic rule in the broader Middle East. This project failed as it prescribed identical political medicine for more than 20 countries. One-shoe-fits-all-type of solutions are often simplistic. They do not take into account the fact that each nation has its peculiar and distinct political personality. Most of the Central Asian countries still follow the Soviet style of controlled democracy and appear quite comfortable with it. Asking them to adopt the Westminster model overnight would be expecting too much.
In the West, where modern democratic institutions have developed, the process has taken a long time to mature. Governmental power in those countries is diffused and decentralized. The executive, judiciary and Parliament function within their respective domains. In UK, for example, the leader of a party does not decide the names of his party’s nominees for contesting elections. There is a consultative process that has to be followed. But in India and Pakistan, the party leaders are much more powerful and often bypass consultative procedures. The majority of political parties in Pakistan do not conduct transparent elections to choose their own leaders.
Democracy is a way of thinking and a set of social attitudes. For a nation to become democratic, its building blocks have to become consultative first, in the same way that families are: For a family to function well, its heads have to grant the younger members freedom of expression and choice.
Accountability through the ballot box or a fair judicial system is the spirit of democracy. The rule of law has to be accepted by everyone, as nobody is above it. However in the developing world, the rich and powerful at times avoid this accountability through their political or family connections.
Money often plays a big role in elections. Potential candidates pay handsome amounts to the party funds — and after being elected they want to recover their “investment.” This leads to corrupt practices that are often evident in democracies of the developing world.
Military dictatorships are now out of favor but true democracy also appears to be a far cry in this part of the world. Developing nations are still students in the school of democracy.
— Javed Hafeez is a former Pakistani diplomat with much experience of the Middle East. He writes weekly columns in Pakistani and Gulf newspapers and appears regularly on satellite TV channels as a defense and political analyst.
Twitter: @hafiz_javed
Disclaimer: Views expressed by writers in this section are their own and do not necessarily reflect Arab News' point-of-view